Oak Forest High School Operation Snowball Holiday Toy Drive

Members of the Oak Forest High School Operation Snowball are giving to children and teenagers fighting cancer by hosting a school-wide holiday toy drive to benefit the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation. After the toy drive ended two vanloads of toys and gift cards were collected to directly benefit children and teens fighting cancer.

Operation Snowball is an international alcohol, tobacco and drug-use prevention program founded in Illinois in 1977, focusing on leadership development to encourage young people to avoid taking drugs.

Treasure Chest Foundation Founder and CEO Colleen Kisel expressed her gratitude for the Snowball program efforts. "I want all of the students who worked so hard to know what a tremendous impact this toy drive will have. Their compassion and generosity will help put smiles on the faces of 1000’s of children and teens each month who are struggling with the adversity of battling childhood cancer," said, Ms. Kisel.

The POTCF is a unique organization whose services impact more than 14,800 young cancer patients in 63 cancer treatment centers in 21 states across the nation and in the District of Columbia. Nowhere else in the nation does such a program exist. Colleen Kisel founded the organization in 1996 after her then seven-year-old son Martin had been diagnosed with leukemia in 1993. Ms. Kisel discovered that giving her son a toy after each procedure provided a calming distraction from his pain, noting that when children are diagnosed with cancer their world soon becomes filled with doctors, nurses, chemotherapy drugs, surgeries and seemingly endless painful procedures. Martin celebrated his 28th anniversary of remission from the disease in March of this year.

If you would like further information about the Treasure Chest Foundation, please contact Colleen Kisel at 1-708-687-TOYS (8697) or visit the Foundation’s website at www.treasurechest.org.